Tag: Agriculture

The NZ Analytics Forum invites you to their event on Analytics in Agriculture, in partnership with the joint ORSNZ and NZSA Conference @ Massey University, Palmerston North. It is free to attend whether you are at the conference or not, but please register at the link below if you plan to attend.

The event is free of charge and is kindly sponsored by Fonterra.
When: Thursday 29th November 3:30pm – 5:10pm, followed by drinks and nibbles until 6pm
Where: Massey University, Palmerston North in the AgHort lecture block

Mark Piper, Director Group Research & Development, Fonterra
At the age of 19 Mark joined the New Zealand Dairy Group (which later became part of Fonterra). In the 24 years Mark has been with Fonterra he has worked in the manufacture of casein and cheese, coordinated supply chain activities for sales into Japan and Korea, managed a technical team for Fonterra Japan and was a Product Group Manager for Fonterra’s global cheese business. Mark moved to Chicago in 2010 and was the Regional Director Ingredients Americas for Fonterra before relocating back to New Zealand in January 2016 to head up the Transformation Office for Fonterra. In February 2017, Mark relocated to Palmerston North to head up Fonterra’s Global Research & Development teams.

Mark will talk about his role inside Fonterra as the head of our Research and Development function, how Analytics is used inside Fonterra to assist in the development of new products, improvement of existing formulations and to improve the food quality standards too.

Vanessa Cave, Team Leader of Statistics in the Bioinformatics and Statistics Group, AgResearch
Vanessa has more than 10 years’ experience collaborating with scientists in the agricultural and environmental sciences, using statistics to solve real-world problems. As a biometrician, Vanessa provides expertise on experiment and survey design, data collection and management, statistical analysis, and the interpretation of statistical findings. Her interests include data visualisation, analysis and integration of high-dimensional datasets, and the statistical challenges related to digital agriculture. Vanessa is also a developer of the Genstat statistical package, a data analysis tool particularly suited to applications in agri-science.

Vanessa’s Talk: Digital Agriculture at AgResearch
Agriculture is one of New Zealand’s largest export income earners. However, digital technologies and analytics are transforming the agricultural industry. AgResearch, a Crown Research Institute that exists to provide science and technology for the benefit of the New Zealand’s agricultural sector, is involved in a number of scientific research projects aimed at preparing New Zealand for the era of “Digital agriculture”. Digital agriculture refers to the use of new and advanced technologies, integrated into one system, to help make farming (more) profitable and sustainable. It offers the potential to provide solutions for the challenges facing New Zealand agriculture. In this presentation, we will describe a suite of recent research projects that can be loosely grouped under the Digital Agriculture umbrella.

Kim Frew, Strategic Delivery Partner, Advanced Analytics Strategy Lead, Fonterra
Kim is a Strategic Delivery Partner in VelocityNXT, Fonterra’s innovation and transformation programme and a key member of the Fonterra Advanced Analytics Community of Expertise. She has held a number of roles over the last four years at Fonterra in the Office of the CFO, NZMP (Fonterra’s Ingredient business) and in Velocity & Innovation. Her focus is cross-functional problem solving using the technical, human and business aspects of creating sustainable value through analytics, where she acts as an agent of change. Kim has also previously worked across multiple industries as an analytics consultant.
Kim will speak to the use cases Fonterra is exploring to create new value, how we ensure people are empowered at the centre of analytics design and delivery and the potential for analytics in our ecosystem for innovation.

We look forward to seeing you at this exciting event,
The NZ Analytics Forum Steering Committee